Page 4
March 27,1995
News
SGA Elections Ballot
Please vote on March 28
SGA
President
Jeremy Ardrey
Michael Williams
Jocelyn L. Holland
Terrence Payton
Teresa Sessoms
Tamala Ayscue
VP
Miltonia "Tonia" Moore
Sophomore Class
Ezekial "Zeke" Norman
Officers
Cassandra E. Palmer
President
Monica Smith
Brent D. Collier
Miss NCCU
Catilla Everette
Malika Husbands
Jonathan "Chris Lilley
Tonja McCormick
Jamil Spain
Keitra Musgrave
VP
Steven Mitchell
Senior Class Officers
Tonya L. White
President
Secretary
Kia Eighty
Shannon Boney
VP
Treasurer
Rhonda Nixon
Tomeka Ward
Miss Senior
Miss Sophomore
Kaciea Curtis
Latoya Williams
Kathy N. Ennett
Babetta "Raquel" Russell
Mauritania "Monika" White
Sophomore Class
Senior Class Congress
Congress
Treva Lawrence
Jonovan T. Cooper
Shelvia Dancey
.Junior Class Officers
Nika "Nikki" Davis
President
Joy Harrell
Taneka Henderson
Hanif Lowry
Laquetta D. Jones
VP
Shayla Nunnally
Jonathan McDougald
Mariscia Reid
Treasurer
Deshonta Robinson
Michael Powell
Temika L. Smith
Junior Class Congress
Cheryl Woods
School choice not the answer
By Karlene Scott
Political Colunmist
Many republicans and church
groups throughout North Carolina
are rallying for our state to make a
real move against the public school
system. They call the move School
Choice, and the idea is that it would
enable parents to choose the school
they want their children to attend.
It works like this: the state would
provide every family with a $2600
voucher per school age child, per
school year.
That money could be used in
one of two ways: either to pay for
private education of the parent’s
choice, or the state could save it
until the child has graduated from
public high school. At this time,
the money would be available for
college education.
Vernon Robinson, a self-pro-
claimed ‘policy entrepreneur’, has
been working on getting school
choice into North Carolina for four
teen years. An ex-college profes
sor, Robinson quit his job two years
ago to lobby full time for the issue.
According to Robinson, “North
Carolina needs this kind of change
because our public schools are fail
ing.
The political bureaucracy has
simply taken over and good educa
tion for our children is no longer
even a consideration.
"New programs that have been
instituted to help raise our public
school systems success in better
Student-run TV now available
By Shelvia Dancy
Echo Staff
March 23 marked the broadcast
date of the first episode of Central
Weekly, a television program pro
duced, directed, and hosted by NC
Central students. Instructor
Laurence S. Lovette, associate di
rector of Learning Resources at
NCCU acts as executive producer.
The idea for the program began
nearly three years ago, when
Lovette had plans to produce a
news magazine program on the
campus of NCCU involving Cen
tral students.
“I though I had a lot of partici
pation, but everything just kept
falling through,” said Lovette. “I
just didn’t have enough dedicated
people, and at that time we didn’t
have the kind of equipment we
have now. This year I lucked up
and had enough people who were
dedicated enough to put on a show.”
Central Weekly is a half-hour
news program produced weekly
to make students familiar with
important and interesting students,
faculty, events, and organizations
around campus. The program will
also feature significant commu
nity events and citizens from time
to time. Other additions to the
format are a movie review and a
music-video-of-the-week.
Central This Month will be a
one-hour culmination of all the
shows produced during the month.
The lengthier format will allow
more in-depth reporting and longer
interviews, and will repeat popular
segments aired during the month.
Hosts of the show are senior
English major Valerie Bracy, from
Michigan, and freshman English
major Shelvia Dancy of Jackson
ville, NC.
Otis Petifer, a freshman from
Jacksonville, acts as producer. Also
among the staff are James Dickens,
technical director), Lawrence
Mopkins, floor manager, and
Regina Smith as a camera opera
tor.
Russell Robinson, a graduate
student majoring in educational
media technology, is director of
the programs. “Basically I’m re
sponsible for making sure every
thing is fine—all the parts are there
to make the show run smoothly.
Television is one of the things I
want to pursue, and I like the pro
grams we’re producing.
"It gives me a chance to work
with people who are serious about
getting into the field of broadcast
ing.”
educating our children, [including
Smart Start and magnets] don’t
work. School Choice will extend
opportunity to our children again
by creating a market of education
services that have not previously
been available to the working
middle and lower classes.”
Objections to vouchers
Durham’s own Representative
Paul Luebke, himself a college pro
fessor and parent, easily explains
his objections to School Choice.
“At first blush. School Choice
seems easy—allowing parents to
move their children to their school
of choice. But a major problem is,
what do we do with all those chil
dren whose parents are not directly
involved in their education?
"Many parents, with high and
low incomes alike, are unconcerned
with their children’s education.
The children of these parents will
end up in the schools that nobody
else wants, because there won’t be
room for them at one of the “better
schools”.
"Also, if the private school re
quires supplemental payment be
yond the voucher, then few work
ing families with 2 or 3 children
can afford that. It presents a huge
element of socio-economic unfair
ness.”
Luebke is not alone. Many
democrats agree. Rep. Howard
Hunter, president of the NC Black
Caucus, boldly states his concern:
“This is going to promote racism
and a classist system.”
Statistics clearly show that the
majority of the wealth of this state
(and of the country) does not be
long to and/or is it controlled by a
the minority sector.
Therefore, if there is a financial
question as to whose child will be
accepted first into a particular
school, chances are it won’t be a
minority child.
Further, for those children
whose parents couldn’t afford pri
vate school, or didn’t take time to
choose a school, the outcome could
be devastating. These children
could end up in a public school that
has been abandoned by all of its
best teachers.
Of course, to Robinson, aban
donment is the intent. “The vouch
er system will force the public
schools to either do better or close
up shop.” When asked if the sys
tem wasn’t more likely to make
good teachers leave empty or “bad”
schools to find jobs in “good”
schools, Robinson doesn’ t respond.
But if republicans simply want
to shut down the public school
system, why don’t they just say
so? Perhaps they are aware that no
private school system could handle
an entire state of children. What
School Choice advocates haven’t
considered—or if they have,
they’re not telling—is that if most
parents in our state choose to put
their child in private school, there
are not enough private schools to
accommodate them. The result
then, would mostly likely be the
acceptance of the “richer kids” by
the “better” schools.
Costs will rise
Additionally, the cost of pri
vate school would have to rise sim
ply due to supply and demand.
However, Robinson suggests that
if demand gets too great, “lots of
black churches will start more pri
vate schools.”
What happens if after a year or
two, these schools do not provide
parents with the “radical change”
they expected? It’s likely these
schools will then close, due to lack
of enrollment. However, after
pouring in the amount of money
necessary to begin a school only to
close down few years later, the
church may find itself closing too,
due to bankruptcy.
The clincher for consideration
of the School Choice issue was put
very neatly by Robinson himself.
When asked how valid he
thought the democrats’ concerns
regarding this issue were, Robinson
responded, “I don’t think segrega
tion will be an issue. That’s ille
gal! But as far as the possibility of
setting up a class system? There’s
no doubt about it.”
When asked if he’s pushing
School Choice for his own child’s
benefit, Robinson answers, “My
child will get the best education
possible because I don’t see my
earning potential becoming threat
ened; but I want the greatest op
portunity for the greatest number
of children, and individuals in
lower classes are better off with
choices.”
(Mmmm...I wonder if that in
cludes choices of things they can’t
afford?)
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